The struggle is real

You know how you can tell yourself over and over that you knew what you were getting yourself into, so none of the hard stuff should be a surprise? Yeah, me too. It doesn't matter though, does it? I mean, maybe some of my crazy planner friends (you know who you are) would expect most of this, but I certainly did not. It's a daily struggle for me trying to keep the big picture in mind. The hardest part of all of this is just feeling disconnected as a family. Most of Ben's "free" time is spent at the house. I'm working more right now thanks to what we refer to as "year-end" in the biz. Normally I'm fortunate enough to have Wednesdays off with the boys, but for about 7 weeks in the January through March timeframe I'm a normal working woman, in the office five days a week. This is extra hard right now as we are already living in chaos. It's not lost on Colter, who has a better handle on our schedule than I do at times. He's very aware that Wednesdays stink right now (even though an extra day at preschool/daycare is fun for him), so we have this deal where I bring him (and Ellis) candy from work on Wednesday nights. Part of me is sad that I'm so easily replaced with sweets, but the other part of me is very thankful for the tears it saves.

A few other funny snippets before I give a house update.

- Anytime we can't find something, the resounding answer is "it's in the POD". Ellis even knows this now and takes it upon himself to remind Colter quite often.
- I asked Colter, our almost four year old, what he wants for his birthday, and he said "I just want all of us to live at the Farmhouse together." Oh my heart. Me too kiddo, me too.
- They both know the difference between the Farmhouse and "the house we are living at right now because the Farmhouse doesn't have a toilet." This was the most visible reason I could come up with about three months ago to explain why we couldn't live there yet. And yes, it's still true. In fact, there is no water at all. The drywallers had to bring their own in 5-gallon buckets. They also brought their own weed, but apparently I'm the only one who thinks this is notable.
- The boys love to go to Padnos with Ben to recycle copper and other metals. Ellis always asks where Louie is. Well...
- The boys are both absolutely set on having yellow bedrooms. The paint swatches they keep taking home from Repcolite are brighter than the sun. This will be a battle, but I promise, I will win. And by win, I mean probably paint the rooms yellow but like the dullest, "this is basically tan" yellow I can find.

Speaking of paint, we finally have color on the new walls! This has been a monumental week. The drywallers finished up last week and a painter came to prime all of the walls and finish the ceilings. Countryside has been off on a different job all week, so Ben and my dad have been busting it getting everything painted. Tiff and I took our turn one evening, so we can take some credit. We'll still have a lot of painting to do once we move in, but at least all of the new stuff is covered. I'm half expecting to repaint some of it eventually because we did the "let's choose one color and paint everything the same" plan. Technically two colors. From the same swatch. Right next to each other.

My dad in the new upstairs family room

Tiff in the new master bathroom

Other progress includes siding on the back of the house, the garage, and some on the South side. The garage door is installed (I think it looks good...remember this was a contentious decision), we have some doors on the addition, though they are temporary ones.

Ben totally patched in the kitchen flooring, which only took 40 hours or so. Kinda not kidding. It looks great, but it was pretty obvious what was new and what was 100 years old. He took some new stuff to Repcolite and they mixed up a stain to try to give the boards a weathered look, and it worked quite well. There is now one coat of poly on, so there is no turning back. Ben hopes to get another one or two on yet this weekend then call it good.

Patching in the squared off entrance. This door used to be angled and you basically walked into a wall. Now it's squared off and totally open.

I was definitely freaking out watching my dad teeter on an unsecure board, saw in hand. He and I spent about 3-4 hours in this section. The guys had glued and screwed down subfloor initially, before we knew we were going to use the maple. This had to come off so that Ben could lay the new boards directly on the joists. Someone had to rip up and sand off the particle board...and turns out that someone was my dad. And me.

Chisel got Ben a little.

Fully patched in kitchen, prior to the final sanding. Hey Phoebes.

After the first coat of poly...looking good with those white cabinets and 'Seattle Mist' walls!

Base cabinets are installed in the kitchen and they look great. They are shimmed an inch or two in some spots. Old house problems. The countertop guys attempted to make a template this week so they could start fabricating the granite, but when I stopped in their shop to check out our slab they realized the template wouldn't work when I casually mentioned the farm sink we were getting. Suddenly you could hear a pin drop and I was like whoa, what did I do? Apparently that has to be installed before they can make an accurate template. Oops...maybe next week?

Our little slab of natural stone. It's amazing to think at one point this was in a mountain or canyon or something, somewhere in India. Really makes you marvel at God's creation, and man's God-given talent to extract it.

Ben has all of the cement board installed in the bathrooms, which we are going to cover with some cutesy white hexagon tiles. With dark grout so I don't ever have to clean. Kidding. But also, not kidding. We still need to decide on flooring for the upstairs and the mudroom. Still leaning towards pine upstairs. And we have enough maple left from the kitchen patching to put in the mudroom, but I hesitate to do so. I kind of want an indestructible vinyl or something, but we haven't really shopped around yet. The "purist" in Ben would say to avoid something that wouldn't have been there before, but then I think about how we're not outfitting the laundry room with a wash basin or the kitchen with an ice box or anything so...it's all about balance.

Colt watching Ben spread the mud to install the cement board in the master bathroom.

Just hanging out with Zeke in his soon-to-be bedroom.

All of the electrical plugs and switches are in, and Ben scored a sweet deal on light bulbs at Menards one day. Apparently these bulbs are $10 a piece and he got them for $4. And the lights the electrician would have used were $23 a piece. Or $32 a piece? So he saved us like $600. This is exactly how this conversation went, by the way. I couldn't really tell you what a good deal is for a light bulb, but Ben will talk your ear off about it. At any rate, the house is now lit up and it's amazing. It's just the best being able to see everything and not freeze your buns off. We're really thankful for heat and electricity again. Even if that means we spent the entire $600 in light bulb savings on our utility bills last month. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

There's still an overwhelming amount of work to be done before we can get the bank's sign off and get moved in. At least we're to the point where the house is generally safe (if you don't open the door to the stair-less basement or pull the cover off the chimney), so maybe we can start hanging out there more as a family. As soon as we get a toilet.